dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran a little longer this morning than I normally do because I don't work Monday's and I feel like I need to start raising the mileage again.  We ran a fat mile in 5:32 (quarter splits of 84, 85, 83, 80) which felt surprisingly good.  Later on I ran a little more of the run fast as I was checking the number of steps I take per minute while running hard.  Ends up that I am right at 200 steps per minute while running 4:40 pace.  1:49:29 for 14.5 miles

1:14:43 for 10.2 miles.  We ran what was supposed to be a fat mile in 5:07, and later ran a quarter in 1:05.  The fat mile felt really good considering the speed we were running.  Speed wise I am feeling great right now.  I just feel like I need to improve my mileage base in order to develop the ability to maintain the speed that I have as well as possible during a marathon.

I ran on my own today.  10.1 miles with 1 mile fast on the way out in 5:14, and a half mile on the way back in 2:38.  While I was running the fast half mile I really impressed this kid that was with some friends near the trail.  He ended up catching up to me on his bike about a mile later and seemed in awe about how fast I had been going.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that I wasn't pushing the pace that much.

I ran fairly easy with Sasha this morning and finished 10.1 miles in 1:17:10.  We ran a fat mile in the middle of the run in 5:45.

I ran alone today because I slept in this morning, but I found out later that Sasha slept in as well, so I don't feel so guilty.  I kept the pace easy today, although I was going too fast early on.  10.1 miles in 1:11:43 (34:29 first half, 37:14 second half).

The goal for today's long run was to run 3 x 3 miles at 5:40 pace with a 1.5 mile recovery between repeats.  I had a feeling before we started that it would end up being faster, because 5:40 pace is a little slow for me.  Anyhow, after a warm-up of just over 4 miles we started and ran the first repeat in 16:44 (5:38, 5:33, 5:33).  The next repeat was finished in 16:41 (5:34, 5:35, 5:32).  Between the first two repeats the plantar fascia on my left foot started to hurt just a little, but it did not bother me too much so I just continued on.  After the second repeat the plantar fascia was hurting a lot more.  I rubbed it a little bit before starting the third repeat hoping that it would not bother me during the last 3 miles.  I finished the last repeat in 16:16 (5:35, 5:35, 5:06).  During the last repeat we took it pretty easy for the first 2 miles, but then ran the last mile faster with quarter splits of 79, 81, 78, 68 (38, 30).  I was happy with the 30 second last 200 because it felt like a 32 and I thought I could have coaxed an extra second out of my legs if it were a race.  My plantar fascia did not bother me too much during the repeat, but afterwards it started hurting a lot, and I was limping.  I stopped and massaged it for about 5 minutes, and was then able to finish the run without too much discomfort.  Total of 20.1 miles in 2:19:31.  After getting home I iced the plantar fascia and then rubbed some stuff on it.  I kept my shoes off as much as possible because it bothers me more when I have shoes on.  By the time I left for work just before 3:00pm it was feeling a lot better.